Ignore Leading Zeros on BarcodesWhen checked, Alexandria will not allow barcodes with leading zeros (i.e. barcodes starting with 0, 00, 000, etc.) to be saved or imported, and all zeros leading up to the first non-zero digit in the barcode will be removed without notice. For example, barcode 0001001 will be changed to barcode 1001. If barcode 1001 is entered (or scanned) with five leading zeros, Alexandria will ignore the extraneous zeros to successfully locate the barcode. In other words, when this preference is enabled, barcodes can be entered with or without leading zeros. When this option is NOT checked: - Leading zeroes will be imported and zeroes will not be removed from those barcodes.
- Barcodes must be entered exactly as they are defined in database records.
- If barcodes contain leading zeroes, they must be entered. But if you enter too many or too few zeroes, Alexandria won't be able to locate the barcode.
Should you choose to disable this preference in the future, leading zeroes will not be removed when saving patron or item barcodes. Then, if you re-enable this preference later, Alexandria will not be able to locate any of the barcodes created during the time in which the preference was disabled because the program is now ignoring leading zeroes. You can run database maintenance to modify and repair your records by stripping existing barcodes of leading zeroes. Allow Spaces in BarcodesSpaces are removed from barcodes before they're saved to your database, but spaces in barcode labels may still appear on physical items received from your vendors. If re-barcoding those items isn't an option, this preference allows you to have spaces in scanned barcodes. Essentially, when text input with spaces is entered into the command line, this preference asks Alexandria to first check if the input is a patron, item, or temporary barcode number. If a barcode match is not found, the input is processed as a circulation command. For example, let's say your copy barcodes are all cataloged correctly as T<barcode>, but you have an abundance of improperly labeled barcodes (such as T<space><barcode>) adhered to physical copies in your collection. If this preference is checked, Alexandria will test to see if T<space>12345 is a barcode before assuming it's a circulation command request to perform an immediate Title Lookup. |